'Derry’s infrastructure unfit for 10,000 students' says rail lobby group

The 2020 ‘New Decade New Approach’ agreement, which enabled restoration of power-sharing at Stormont, included a commitment that “The Executive will bring forward proposals for.the development and expansion of the UU campus at Magee College… to realise the 10,000 student campus target”. This commitment was reiterated in the ‘Programme for Government’ that was released by the NI Executive last month.

The Department for the Economy has responsibility for Higher Education, and in March 2024 its then-Minister Conor Murphy established a Magee Taskforce to map out the expansion to 10,000 students. That Taskforce released its report in December 2024 – covering not just academic considerations, but also related issues like transport and accommodation.

‘Into The West’ is the campaign for rail across counties Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh and Donegal. The organisation has written to the current Economy Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, to welcome Magee expansion - whilst also expressing concern that the city’s current infrastructure is unfit to meet the needs of a greatly-expanded student cohort.

In particular they have raised issue with the current timetable on the Derry-Belfast railway line, which results, they said, in Derry receiving 2,400 fewer trains a year than every station East of the Bann gets on the same line. They are therefore calling for the Minister to help secure the funding required to address this and support the city’s ability to cater for 5,000 additional students.

Chair of Into The West, Steve Bradley, said: “Into the West welcomes the plan to significantly expand student numbers in Derry. The lack of a proper university in the city has been a significant source of discontent for 60 years, and we commend all who have campaigned and worked to resolve this over the years.

"We are concerned, however, that a similar long-standing under-investment in the city’s infrastructure – and particularly its public transport – has left Derry ill-prepared to meet the travel demands that extra students will bring. We have therefore raised this with the Economy Minister – and in particular to highlight the blatant East-West disparity that exists in rail services on the Derry-Belfast line.

"Buses don’t have the capacity required to move significant numbers of people, and it is in no-one’s interests for Derry’s streets to become clogged with hundreds of additional student vehicles. So rail should have a central role to play in moving the extra 5,000 students in and out of Derry throughout the academic year. Yet Derry and the two other stations Wast of the Bann each currently receive 2,400 fewer trains a year (and over one million fewer seats) than every station east of the Bann does on the same line.

"It is ridiculous that small towns and villages in the East are significantly better served on the same rail line than NI’s second-largest city is. This situation is at its worst on Sundays, when Derry has only six rail services in each direction – one every two hours – whereas every station in the East has an hourly service, amounting to 13 trains in each direction.

"There is a culture in NI of many students returning home on weekends. But the fact there are only 6 trains to Derry on a Sunday – with those services already busy as it is – will prevent rail from adequately meeting the needs of another 5,000 students. Furthermore – Derry is already suffering a shortage of student accommodation, made worse by the council now stopping new student houses in the city. There is currently only one train that reaches Derry before 9am on weekday mornings – whereas Coleraine and even Portrush have twice as many. This means that the ability of rail to facilitate students who choose to live outside of Derry and commute in for their studies will also be heavily curtailed. In short – a mode of transport which should be a genuine enabler for the expansion of student numbers in Derry instead risks acting as a barrier or even a hand-brake on that growth. It is therefore essential that action is taken now to prevent that happening.”

Into The West are calling for the Economy Minister to acknowledge the limitation that Derry’s current public transport provision will place upon its ability to facilitate 5,000 additional students, and for her to secure the funding needed to address this East-West “discrimination”.

Steve Bradley concluded: “Derry has one of the busiest and fastest-growing railway stations in NI, catering for almost a million passengers a year. Introducing another 5,000 students to the city, with many traveling home on weekends or commuting in for classes, is guaranteed to see that demand increase significantly.

"There is no reason why stations West of the Bann should have a significantly poorer quality and frequency of service than every station in the East has on the same line.”

Referring to what he described as “blatant geographical discrimination” that was “supposed to have stopped in NI decades ago” he said this disparity could now act as a significant barrier to the government’s target of expanding student numbers to 10,000 in Derry.

"We’re therefore calling on the Economy Minister to work with her Executive colleagues to urgently find the relatively small sum of funding required to deliver equality of service on the Derry-Belfast rail line. This would be a quick, low cost and relatively easy way to unlock significant new rail capacity for Derry.”